Uber-Rare Books Pilfered by Librarian Head Home

Sweden has received books stolen from its National Library. (Shutterstock)

(Newser)
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After a librarian quietly stole rare books from Sweden's National Library, two of them turned up at a bookstore in Baltimore; now, Sweden is finally getting them back. But the Kungliga Biblioteket has a long way to go: Senior librarian Anders Burius spent a decade stealing 56 "rare or one-of-a-kind books," and just four have been rediscovered, the Wall Street Journal reports. Three of them were in the US, and more are believed to have been sold to American dealers.

Burius, who later committed suicide, confessed to stealing books starting in 1995 and selling them to a German auction house called Ketterer Kunst. "He would take them in small chunks to Ketterer and sell them under an assumed name for cash after erasing markings that would show where they came from," says a lawyer for the library. The two latest recoveries are worth a combined $255,000, according to officials; Das illustrate Mississippithal and Description de la Louisiane both offer centuries-old looks at American territory, with the latter reportedly containing the first-ever map of Louisiana. Click for details of the search. (Read more Sweden stories.)

These kinds of holdings need a redundant security protocol and system. For one thing, libraries often have a policy where no staffer leaves without a good shakedown. Nobody locks or opens alone. Valuable collections cannot be occupied alone. Workers cannot carry out sacks, backpacks, briefcases, etc without a search. No after hours access to the library is allowed at any time. Staff cannot remove non circulating items at any time.